Sand Filter or Cartridge?? Which is better?

[gordyjamz]

One more thing too, doesn't all that stuff CarlD wrote (6 steps) for cleaner water with sand filter seem like a lot of money and time spent on a device that's supposed to work properly?

[gordyjamz]

Ok here's my opinion so far reguarding sand. If you don't minda slight haze to your water, I suppose its ok. I'm looking to buy a cartridge. Why you ask, I'll tell ya. We bought our house last year with this pool already here. after two weeks the filter was leaking from the backwash pipe. Needed a new spider gasket. Only 12 bucks at the pool store. OK So I put a new one in, worked fine for the rest of the season. This year it was fine till a few days ago. Guess what its leaking again. It's a hayward swimpro. The guy who sold me the house said he just replaced the sand the year prior(2004). Everyone says the sand should be good for up to 6 years? Well I don't know what to believe. water's hazy. I must say I think i fell for something, because common sense told me " how can water be filtered from sand?" I am still a rather new pool owner who is getting well experienced with addressing problems with algae, filters. etc. And my experience so far is telling me to get rid of the sand filter. Sounds like cartridge is a WHOLE lot easier to maintain. Who can argue with hosing off a filter once a month(10 minutes?), buying a new filter cart. every, what 2 years? versus backwashing, leaking, repairs and such. I may stay away from Hayward too considering the problems with their product. One question I do have for cartridge owners is what size do I get? I have an AG pool 4 1/2 ft, 27 ft diameter round. Hayward 1 1/2 hp pump, 70GPM. Do you also recommend a certain brand other than hayward?

[roddiaz1]

I'm thinking of going to cartidge from D.E.. This is my experience: I purchased this house 3 years ago that came with 20' x40' vinyl lined in-ground pool. The pump is a golden hayward (not sure of the specs) and the D.E. filter is a Hayward EC75.

I find that the "life" of my filter is coming to an end. There are a lot of broken plastic parts, non too critical, the pressure gauge sticks, but the filtering ability is no longer any good. Last year I noticed that after regenerating the filter (especially after vacuuming) some D.E. would escape into the pool. Anoying but nothing too terrible. I went through approx. 50lbs of D.E. last year.

This year (after tearing apart the filter and cleaning it thoroughly) upon opening the pool I noticed that my cycles-time between regeneration-were ridiculously short. About 15 minutes! I noticed that my pressure climbs from 5lbs to 25 lbs, before I even put the D.E. in. when I put the D.E. in it remians at 25 lbs and the only further indication I have a clog is that the water flow back to the pool is but a trickle. I can run the filter with the air-bleed open and no spaying...

I called the pool place and they said: Bump and regenerate. I've only done that a dozen times now. I guess I could tear it apart (again) and re-clean it and try agian. I don't know if anybody noticed this yet ,but the EC75 doesn't look like it was designed to be torn apart often...what is it 32 screws???

It is true that my water is particularly swamp and gooey this year upon opening, but the filter is on it's last legs I beleive.

Here is what I beleibe about the cartidge filters. Even if I buy new cartidges every year, it about equal to my D.E. cost (I went through 25 lbs on openning day). And, everytime I replace the cartidges I'll have a virtually new filter. Also, I have several sets of cartidges, so that I can rotate them and while I'm soaking/cleaning one set the other set is working away. I don't think it would be practicle to have several filter nest for the D.E. filter.

Most of the comparisons I have seen are "ideal condition" operating parameters. We know D.E. cleans best, so let's be more praticle, which system is better when the you've got problems (Algae, tubidity, etc.). Which system is more robust (possibly sand)?

Rod

[drumr]

I started with a 150 sq ft hayward missle pro cartridge filter when I bought my 24' AG pool and 1 1/2 hp pump. I stuck with it for 3 seasons before changing to a 200 lb poolco sand filter and very recently a 3/4 hp pump that I have been much happier with. I took the advice of some of the other members here and add a cup of DE everytime I backwash and have a crystal clear pool.

The main reason I switched is because I would spend 45 minutes every other week cleaning the filter with a pressure washer (on its lowest setting). I wasn't saving any water by not backwashing because It would take so long to clean even with the pressure washer.

Now I have about the same filtration (with adding a cup of DE) with just a few minutes of backwashing and no bugs, dirt, and other goop that always would end up all over me before I was finished cleaning cartridge.